6 Ways To Pass Time On A Layover

24 August 2023 Off By admin

Let’s all be honest, most of the time layovers just aren’t that fun! You’re probably in the middle of two long haul flights, you might be tired and jet lagged, you’ve already checked all your luggage and for some reason your flight has been hit with an extra three hour delay. It makes you want to pull your hair out, right?! This was our situation flying from Cancun to Orlando. We had an three hour layover in Dallas that got pushed out to almost eight hours. Even though these weren’t long haul flights, we were on a tight schedule, only spending a few nights in each city, which meant we had potentially lost a whole day that we could have spent exploring! If you’re stuck at an airport here are some ways to pass the time..

People-watch

Maybe the most entertaining of all free activities. People can be extremely amusing to watch – we just do strange things! An airport can be a very entertaining place to people watch due to the massive crowds of people and the wide range of people running around the lounges.

Window-shop

Most big airports have a great section of high end fashion brands. I always like to have a window shop at all the high fashion handbags and accessories! The shops are always so beautiful and luxurious, and the shop assistants are usually much nicer than if you were to walk into these brands in a major city/shopping centre.

Take a day trip

If you have a long lay over and the airport you’re stuck at is located fairly close to a town why not take a day trip? Your bags should still be checked from your first flight so grab a local map, jump in a taxi or on a bus and explore wherever you are until your next flight. It might seem like a crazy idea, but sometimes these are the best adventures.
Catch up on e-mails from home
If you’ve been travelling for a while it might be a good time to catch up with your family and friends back home. Give your mum a call, catch up on e-mails from your aunties and uncles or jump onto Facebook and check in with what your best friends are doing. They will all appreciate hearing from you, especially if you’re taking the time to check in with how they’re doing!

Get a jump on photo organizing/editing

If you’re anything like me you would have a hundred thousand photos from your travels. If I have a few extra hours to kill at the airport I pull out my iPad and start sorting through these mountains of photos. I often have heaps of photos of the same thing, so by organising and choosing the best photos to keep I can free up some room on my iPad and avoid coming home with ten thousand photos.

Exercise your mind

Can be a great way to pass the time. Exercise your mind with different kinds of puzzles such as sudoku or crosswords. I love sudoku, it’s so challenging! The very hard puzzles can take ages to complete too which makes the time pass faster. You can pick up cheap sudoku and crossword challenge books from most airport news stands for under $10 with all levels of difficulty.